Map / Terrain Editor
by Damian Hart · in Torque Game Engine · 11/01/2005 (2:57 pm) · 9 replies
I'm a complete and utter noob with Torque. I wrote in some time ago saying that I wanted to see how big the world that comes with starter.fps is. So I started the game, pressed the "forward" key, and ran until I hit the end of the world or looped back to where I started.
45 minutes later, I was still running and I didn't see any repeated map features (like buildings, etc). I am *pretty sure* the map is not infinitely large. So I posted a question about it and someone said, "Oh, press F11 and move the camera and you'll see how it's tiled."
Today I did that. And I didn't see it. I detached the camera and flew up to get a bird's-eye view and didn't see any tiling or any indication of an edge of the world or any such. I did however see a big green "box" inside of which was a big red box. I used the terrain tools to grow really, really tall spikes of land on the borders...then went back to the player toon and ran to those spikes to see what would happen at the borders. Nothing happened. I ran right on by them. Once I'd passed beyond the boundaries of the green box, I stopped and detached the camera to see if I'd looped back to the other side of the map somewhere. Nope...I was just on the other side of the green box.
So, I'm still flummoxed. Here's my questions.
1: What's the red box?
2: What's the green box?
3: The map can't possibly be infinite. Where are the boundaries? How do I find them? How is the (probable) looping done when the player crosses over the edge of the map? (where is that edge?)
4: What if I wanted to create a much smaller playing field? Say, perhaps, 1 mile x 1 mile...how would I do that in this apparently never-ending map?
---Damian
45 minutes later, I was still running and I didn't see any repeated map features (like buildings, etc). I am *pretty sure* the map is not infinitely large. So I posted a question about it and someone said, "Oh, press F11 and move the camera and you'll see how it's tiled."
Today I did that. And I didn't see it. I detached the camera and flew up to get a bird's-eye view and didn't see any tiling or any indication of an edge of the world or any such. I did however see a big green "box" inside of which was a big red box. I used the terrain tools to grow really, really tall spikes of land on the borders...then went back to the player toon and ran to those spikes to see what would happen at the borders. Nothing happened. I ran right on by them. Once I'd passed beyond the boundaries of the green box, I stopped and detached the camera to see if I'd looped back to the other side of the map somewhere. Nope...I was just on the other side of the green box.
So, I'm still flummoxed. Here's my questions.
1: What's the red box?
2: What's the green box?
3: The map can't possibly be infinite. Where are the boundaries? How do I find them? How is the (probable) looping done when the player crosses over the edge of the map? (where is that edge?)
4: What if I wanted to create a much smaller playing field? Say, perhaps, 1 mile x 1 mile...how would I do that in this apparently never-ending map?
---Damian
About the author
#2
1. I believe red box is the mission bounds.
2. Extents of the terrain tile.
3. There is no looping, the terrain tile just starts repeating. Make a distinctive landmark in the terrain editor (like a super deep hole or a big pillar) and go along for a bit - after a while you'll see it again, but nothing else will repeat.
4. Why try to make the whole world smaller when all you have to do is set up a trigger or wall to keep people from getting outside the playable area? There's no real cost to the extra space in TGE.
11/01/2005 (3:51 pm)
It just tiles the terrain, not the whole world... So you'lll see shadows from non-existant buildings when you get further out but no actual buildings, as they're not repeatead.1. I believe red box is the mission bounds.
2. Extents of the terrain tile.
3. There is no looping, the terrain tile just starts repeating. Make a distinctive landmark in the terrain editor (like a super deep hole or a big pillar) and go along for a bit - after a while you'll see it again, but nothing else will repeat.
4. Why try to make the whole world smaller when all you have to do is set up a trigger or wall to keep people from getting outside the playable area? There's no real cost to the extra space in TGE.
#3
11/01/2005 (5:59 pm)
4. Yeah. If you ever used the unreal engine there are blocking volumes which are invisible walls that do not allow the player to pass through them. This can be achived with a trigger data block and I'd say a good 15 lines of code. I should be starting on one that does the same thing in the next few weeks. If I remeber, I'll post the code here. 
#4
11/01/2005 (6:22 pm)
You can use a .dif made with just invisible collision brushes to stop people from going too far as well. Doesn't take any code or script to implement except for what's generated in the .mis file when you place and size it in the editor.
#5
11/02/2005 (4:06 am)
Hmmm, how would you place buildings in the repeated terrain blocks? If the area is outside the mission and buildings aren't repeated, can the tool put buildings there? I mean, there's not much point having endless landscapes with nothing in them is there? 
#6
But yes, placing buildings where the terrain repeats does work.
11/02/2005 (4:22 am)
It's not too hard to try, is it? (:But yes, placing buildings where the terrain repeats does work.
#7
1: If the red-box is the "mission area," ...what does that mean? What's a mission area? If the player can move beyond the boundaries of the red box, then what's the point?
2: So the green box is the terrain "tile"? Meaning whatever shape the land is in *inside* the green box just repeats as the tile is...tiled?
3: If that's true, then in essence the world really is endless...but just a repeat of the terrain inside the green box? Only the placeables aren't repeated...just the terrain.
11/02/2005 (6:31 am)
Wow..thanks for all the replies. That helps a lot and I will be experimenting with the repeated terrain to learn more. Now, I have more questions.1: If the red-box is the "mission area," ...what does that mean? What's a mission area? If the player can move beyond the boundaries of the red box, then what's the point?
2: So the green box is the terrain "tile"? Meaning whatever shape the land is in *inside* the green box just repeats as the tile is...tiled?
3: If that's true, then in essence the world really is endless...but just a repeat of the terrain inside the green box? Only the placeables aren't repeated...just the terrain.
#8
A3: Yes.
11/02/2005 (6:50 am)
A1: I believe you can set it up so that if you pass the red box it starts hurting you so that it forces you to remain inside or die. Or you could make it just stop you. Right now I think it does nothing by default.A3: Yes.
#9
Dave.
11/03/2005 (4:27 am)
Stefan, I'm not trying anything until I get through at least the first of Finney's books. I like to have a good overview of things before I start meddling. Hard to do, but I'm trying :-) As part of that I'm monitoring the forum threads, so this one just interested me! Thanks for the reply.Dave.
Torque Owner Thomas Natale
4. The easiest solution i've seen is just create really tall walls at the points you don't want players passing. Or you could simply make a 'forest' that blocks all movement that surrounds the edges. I'm not really sure, other people will give you better answers.